My district council has collected small electrical items for asong as I can remember. I was surprised to find out that not all councils do this.

As much as I think it’s a good thing for councils to have control over their local budgets (so long as they’re funded adequately…), I think it’s a poor system to let councils take on individual recycling contracts. The buying power alone should make a unified contract more economical. It’s mad that moving from one town to another can put you into a council that offers a poorer service, likely for a similar cost (if comparing neighbouring councils).